


Lure of the Maw

by burntpaws



Category: Little Nightmares (Video Games)
Genre: (of LN2), Canon-Typical Violence, Claustrophobic Mono, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dark, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Horror, Humor, Injury, Mono is a sweetheart, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Puzzles, Selectively mute six, Sign Language, Survival, Time Loop, hunger
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-28 15:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30141669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burntpaws/pseuds/burntpaws
Summary: Mono and Six find themselves on The Maw.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares), Mono/Six (Little Nightmares)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 164





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> whew! I've had this planned for a while, and I finally decided to go ahead and write it! The prologue has been done for some time now but I'm just now posting it. I hope you enjoy!

Things were starting to fall into a new normal.

The terrors they’d faced together on their journey to the Signal Tower and the hardships they’d struggled through while adapting to a new area to survive in had all been crossed, and a somewhat domestic life was starting to fall into place, albeit a bit more horrific than what may be ideal.

Finding food that wasn’t expired or rotting was the first major hurdle. Scavenging from fridges that still had a little bit of coolness left had worked for a while, and they’d been lucky enough to find plenty of canned foods, but preparing a stock to minimize going out into danger was tough. So, every few days, they’d venture together into the woods or to Pale City to recover food that could be eaten. They’d devised a plan — perishables would be eaten as soon as possible while canned food would be saved for when scavenging would be too dangerous or too difficult, like in the cold or storms (they’d learned to trek the Pale City through rain properly after the time spent there, it was just the wind that had to be taken into consideration).

Water had been easy, what with the constant rain. All they’d have to do is set out some buckets and they’d be fine. Shelter had also been surprisingly easy. The suburbs on the outskirts of the Pale City were more so in one piece than the apartments or piles of rubble that threatened to topple nearby. A moderately sized house with boarded up windows and doors had been perfect, and plenty of child-sized entrances were available for ease of access for them. Old clothes and blankets left behind solved the problem of warmth easily, and if it ever wasn’t enough, it would be easy to pry off a few dry boards from the neighboring houses’ floors or similarly blockaded windows.

The new routine brought about a comfort Six had never felt before, and one Mono probably hadn’t either. Knowing that the next day would be the same as the last, and you would be safe, even if something bad happened, was… a good new. One she didn’t mind. Back at the Hunter’s, she’d always vaguely felt as though she wouldn’t be killed, instead provided for, but the routine was painfully boring. She was fed, she slept, she paced, she scratched out doodles of things she’d dreamt of, and she wound her music box. It was agonizingly bland. Safe, but bland.

But this routine was never promised safe, always teetering on completely cushiness and peril at every corner. And Mono was always there to add something new to the mix, even when nothing particularly interesting happened in days.

Living with him just made things… better. Short and simple: better. He was a wonderful companion and just added so much life to the world.

“ _See anything neat outside today?_ ” Six would sign in greeting to him.

“Just the usual ominous _bwaaaa_ from the Tower nearby and people screaming around me. You didn’t miss anything exciting,” he would respond while shaking the rain out of his coat. She would smile at him, he would smile back. Because that’s just how Mono is. And it’s perfect.

When they go to sleep there’s only one real problem that couldn’t be fixed. Both of them had nightmares. Not ones that left them mildly unsettled in the morning, but ones that woke them up screaming in the middle of the night. More often than not, their night terrors were the same as they were every night.

Mono dreamt of killing himself. Not in a suicidal way, but in a… time loop way. From what Six knew, she understood that the dream often consisted of the same variables: Mono fights his future self again, and as he delivers the final pulse of power, his present self is revealed under the static image of the Thin Man, and fades with a haunting grin. The City crushes into a small, confined room, and he’s alone. Apparently in his dream, it feels like days go by. He’d wake up crying and desperately reaching for Six, who had become accustomed to groggily putting her arms around a sobbing Mono, clinging to her like she was as fragile as air.

Six dreamt of dropping Mono. In that split moment she had broken in the Tower, seeing Mono as the Thin Man, she’d loosened her grip by a fraction of its usual strength, but both she and Mono had noticed in a horrifying way. In reality, the fear of losing him had scared her more than the possibility of relief, and she’d pulled him up. But in her dream, a swarming fog blurs her mind and she lets go of Mono without a single emotion. She watches him fall far from her, with tears lingering in his wake, and an echoing scream ringing in her ears. Mono would shake from her kicking and mumbling sleep talk until she fully awoke, to which she would look at Mono with guilt weighing her heart down, and he’d hold her through the waves of emotion, promising her that he wasn’t angry at her.

Though, more recently, a new nightmare had crept into her dreams. The old one was still persistent, but some mornings had Six waking up confused.

This new dream was vague, and not at all as pristine as the one she’d consistently had. It was out of focus, and out of her grasp — the opposite of the too-clear image she had of Mono’s heartbroken eyes staring at her as he fell into the abyss. In this dream, she felt the world sway around her, somewhat nauseatingly, and a subtle rumble was somewhere near. The rumbling wasn’t like thunder or machinery, but like talking… animalistic grunts and growls concentrated into one area, far away, reaching her ears. Something was in her hands, and it was warm and breathing and wet. She vaguely registered an energy coursing through her, but when she woke up, it vanished.

Six opened her eyes slowly, scrunching her face up in bewilderment. _Again?_

She sat up from the bed, glancing around her surroundings. It was still the bedroom she’d _demanded_ they set up in upon arriving at the house — one with plenty of blank wallpaper for her to doodle onto, somewhat of a habit she’d established at the Hunter’s, as well as a bed that wasn’t excessively big while still fitting them together. Early milky-blue pre dawn light flowed into the room through the gaps between window boards, accompanied with the familiar sound of rain dripping from off the roof and Mono’s deep, slow breathing.

She looked down at him fondly. Without his paper bag (which she oddly sorely missed) he was very handsome. His hair was soft and relaxing to run her fingers through, his face was naturally kind, and he just… _looked_ so friendly. He always had the ghost of a smile on his cheeks, and his eyes always seemed crinkled with a grin. It was contagious.

Her own face lifted in a soft smile, and she instinctively carded her thin fingers through his soft hair. The ghost on his face became real as he squinted his eyes open. They were so lovely.

“Good morning,” he whispered. She just chuckled lightly. “Sleep well?”

She swayed her head in a so-so way. “ _Weird dream._ ”

“The rumbly one?” She nodded. He hummed, and took her hand into his with a gentle squeeze. “It’s better than a nightmare.”

Six sighed in agreement. He looked up at her with sympathetic eyes.

“Do you wanna sleep more? We don’t really have anything planned for today.”

She considered for a moment, then nodded. He opened his arms to her and she happily cozied up to his chest. The rise and fall paired with his heartbeat were already soothing enough to lull her back to sleep, but the quiet humming of her music box’s tune from Mono made it even easier. He pet her hair and the melody resonated in his chest, and she let her eyes close again to sleep.

  
  
  


Waking up was somehow easier and harder than before. She felt well rested, more so than when she’d first woken, but Mono’s warmth and the temptation of more sleep was weighing her down. Luckily, Mono was already up to solve this problem.

“You’re up again!” His voice was cheery, but blessedly quiet. Six answered with a yawn. “You slept for a while, it’s gonna be noon soon.”

Six looked at the window again and saw brighter light seeping in, though still watery with rain. The two had learned to tell time despite the constant showers, even if it wasn’t exactly pinpoint accurate.

“ _Have you eaten yet?_ ”

“No, I didn’t wanna risk waking you up.” Six’s shoulders shook with a short, quiet laugh.

“ _Let’s see what we have._ ” She wiggled herself from Mono and the blankets before padding out of the room to the kitchen. She could hear him following.

They looked around the cabinets and the somewhat-cool fridge to see what was available. In the end they settled for eating cereal (dry, they didn’t have milk) and sitting on the damp porch as the rain poured down.

“I think it’s gonna start getting cold soon,” Mono said with a mouthful of cereal. Six glanced at him expectantly. “It’s already chilly at night, we had to go get more, remember? And the leaves in the woods are starting to fall a lot more.”

Six hummed in contemplation. “ _We already have a lot of firewood._ ”

“Yeah, but we’re gonna need other things too. Like more stuff to light the fires. We didn’t really need to worry about lighters since we didn’t have to keep ourselves warm or cook meat since everything was bad.”

“ _Isn’t everything still bad?_ ” Her hands moved cleanly as if to convey a smug tone. Mono rolled his eyes affectionately.

“If we find any good meat, we could save it better now. Like, with snow and stuff.”

“ _And if we can’t find any food?_ ” He nodded towards their house behind them.

“We’ve got like… a gazillion cans inside. I just think it’d be good to have some other food so we don’t get sick of everything.” Mono shoveled another handful of cereal into his mouth with a dopey grin, to which Six laughed wholeheartedly at. She rested her head on his shoulder contently.

“ _Okay. So what’s today’s plan?_ ”

“Look for stuff that’ll help us. Like lighters and maybe some hunting tools.”

“ _When do you want to go?_ ”

He shrugged. “Whenever you wanna.”

She stood and headed inside, with Mono watching her go, before she popped back out from the doorless frame with her yellow raincoat and a little grin.

“ _I’m ready if you are._ ”

Mono slid the bowl under the boarded entrance and brushed himself off, then offered his hand to Six. Their intertwined fingers swung between them as they headed off to scavenge around the houses again.

  
  
  


There was no luck in the neighborhood with finding anything useful to them. They hadn’t found any lighters (they assumed the former residents had taken them upon fleeing) and the only things that could be considered as tools for hunting were guns too big for them to properly utilize.

So, with worse coming to worse, they arrived at the City.

Neither of them had returned since their first adventure. They’d gotten close — close enough to hear the citizens shriek and howl and creak, but not enough to really be _in_ the city. But they had to go back to concretely ensure survival.

It was difficult though. Finding anything salvageable in the rubble was a challenge, and it didn’t help to constantly be running and hiding from the adults. Uneasiness and growing frustration made the traveling even more unbearable, and the rain had gotten to both of them at this point, with it soaking through and through Mono’s coat and the puddles splattering freezing water on Six’s legs. She squeezed his hand in hers, and he glanced back.

“ _Mono,_ ” she signed. “ _Let’s go home._ ”

He thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “Let’s just find one thing, okay? Anything. Then we’ll go home.”

Six hesitated, but nodded tiredly. He shot her a sympathetic smile and kissed her cheek. The warmth reinvigorated her somewhat.

The search continued for some time, with barely anything found. Night was starting to fall over the City, and Six became increasingly anxious.

“We’ll go soon, I promise,” Mono said again as the two churned through assortments of trash and thrown out items. He was on the opposite side of the alleyway they’d been scrounging through for the past fifteen minutes, tearing through the variety of junk as Six did.

She huffed in exhaustion, but persisted. She knew it’d be worth it — Mono was great at making these sort of things up to her. He’d bring her a dry outfit, let her choose dinner, and he’d use one of those hot chocolate packets to make her a cup. It always warmed her up to sip her favorite drink by the fire with Mono cuddled up to her.

Something glimmered and caught her eye among the rest of the trash. Her fingers carefully dug it out and revealed a small little lighter in her palm. Her heart lifted and relief weighed in her. Despite her shivering and her want to stay curled up, she stood and turned to Mono.

“Hey!” Her small voice caught his attention, and a grin split across his face when he spotted the little trinket she held up.

But then he was gone within moments.

And he was screaming.

Six felt everything truly run cold.

His shrieks were pure horror and panic. She couldn’t see where he’d gone, but she could hear him clear as day. But her confusion diffused in an instant, the moment they stepped out.

Someone, or maybe something, with a sagging, rotting face stepped from the shadows in a looming, with a presence that could only be described as _inescapable._ The gaping holes where their eyes should have been seemed to be looking straight at her. In a thick hand was a canvas sack that writhed with Mono inside. Six understood exactly what was to happen.

She wanted to run, hide, _anything_ but just stand there. But she also wanted to save Mono. He was screaming for her, begging for help, louder than all the rain in the Pale City. She knew she had no chance against this oppressive figure, but she could never leave Mono behind. Never.

So, she ran up to the stranger, and pointed to the sack. They looked at it, then to her, as if asking for elaboration. To further encourage, she lifted her arms up in a wordless request to be lifted up. They showed no signs of being surprised, and instead simply picked her up with one hand and threw her in with Mono, who she painfully crashed into.

He was clawing hopelessly at the bag, making an awful scratching noise with his nails. Everything swayed with each step of their captor, and it didn’t help that Mono paced (as much as one can pace in a sack) with a panicked tempo. He rolled and tripped and stumbled, only stopping when Six was dropped on top of him. He’d yelped and floundered away clumsily. Every step had him falling over himself and pressing himself to their surroundings, then flinching at the contact.

“Six? No, no, you should’ve run… You…” His breathing was wild and unsteady as he pushed the fabric around them away from him anxiously. Six peddled backwards and gave him as much space as he could have in the bag.

“Mono,” she said as gently as possible. He looked at her with wide, teary eyes and a heaving chest. “I’m not leaving you.”

The tears spilled and he crashed into her in a sweeping hug while he sobbed into her shoulder. She held him tightly and gripped his coat with every ounce of strength inside her.

Six tried her best to calm him down with all the tactics he often used to calm her: brushing his hair, whispering kind words, squeezing his hands, anything to make him feel better. He eventually stopped crying, but he was still shaking and grabbing onto her like she’d disappear. His breathing was ragged, though steadily returning to a normal pace.

“Are you okay?” She would ask the question every so often, and the answer was always to bury his face into her chest. She wouldn’t push for anything else.

Hours passed, as told by the complete darkness now settled around them, and the real exhaustion seeping into Six’s bones. She wished for her bed, the blankets and pillows, the feeling of being snuggled up to Mono as they whispered goodnight and exchanged one last kiss for the day.

Not to be trapped in a bag as Mono quivered and whimpered.

“Mono, do you want to try to sleep?” She pushed the hair from his face to look at him. His eyes were red and sore from crying, but drooped with the same tiredness. With heavy eyelids, he slowly nodded.

“I hope this is just a nightmare,” he murmured brokenly. It pained Six to see him so cheerless. Still, she bundled him up in her arms and rested her cheek on his head. His coat fell over them like a makeshift blanket, and they were surprisingly able to get relatively comfy (as comfy as a bag could get).

“I love you,” Six said quietly, kissing his forehead.

“Love you too,” Mono replied wearily.

  
  
  


_Darkness surrounded Six. She couldn’t see anything in front of her, not even her own hands. Then she came to the shocking realization that she didn’t_ have _hands. She didn’t even have a body. The fear rolled over her in foamy waves until she spotted a light piercing the pitch blackness. Something was turning. Some_ one _was staring at her. Their face was smooth and pale, like a mask, and was framed by well-groomed black hair. The world, what was left of it, rumbled at her, like a threat to keep looking at this person…_

Before she was jolted awake by her own fear.

When Six opened her eyes, gasping awake, she was surrounded by something other than just canvas fabric. The walls around her were metal and dripping with water. It was dark, a little cold, and empty. She was also faintly aware of a steady dizziness in her head that made the room feel uneven. She laid in an open suitcase. And next to her was Mono.

“Mono,” she whispered. “Wake up.”

He stirred slowly, mumbling sleepily, then shot up within moments, as if remembering the events of the previous day, or however long it’d been. His chest rose and fell with quick, manic breaths, and his eyes darted around anxiously.

“Where are we?” Six clasped his hand with hers, pulling them close together.

“I don’t know,” she murmured, “but I don’t think it’s a good place.”

She tried to stand, but the dizziness caught her off guard, and she stumbled back to the cold floor. Mono came to her side, albeit a bit wobbly. 

It slowly dawned on her, with the even swaying, the rumbling that was familiar but somehow off, the wetness of dripping water, the creaking around them… 

  
  
  


“Mono,” she breathed. “I think this is my nightmare.”


	2. The Lair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Through The Lair they go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOOO god this took so long!!! I'm a perfectionist so for this fic I've literally been going back to the actual LN game to make sure I get everything right! I hope it pays off! ;w;

“I think this is my nightmare.”

Mono blinked at her.

“The rumbly one?” She nodded. The color left in his already pale face drained. “Okay. So… that’s… probably not a good thing. Uh… what exactly happened in that one again?”

“ _Aside from the rumbling, there was something warm and it was wet. And everything was swaying._ ” Mono looked around them and slowly came to the same realization Six had.

“So we’re in your nightmare,” he repeated, somewhat to himself, as if reaffirming. “How do we get out of it?”

SIx wasn’t able to answer, so she instead began to look around, searching for any way out or something to point them in the right direction. To her left, the room got ominously darker, though branched off from the small area she and Mono were in. She prodded around her raincoat’s pockets and sighed in elated relief when she grasped the lighter.

Its light was warm and inviting compared to the damp coldness surrounding them. It illuminated the weak smile on Mono’s face and brightened the way as they started through the darkness.

At the end was a lantern, which Six promptly lit, and the familiar cover of a vent. When she lifted its door, a cramped passageway was revealed. She frowned and turned to Mono, who shuffled anxiously.

“ _Do you want me to go first?_ ”

“Sure. Yeah.” She briefly took his hand in hers and squeezed it comfortingly, and he returned the gesture. She reluctantly let go as they crouched down and crawled through the small, enclosed space. She led the way with her lighter through the brief moment of anxiety before they dropped out onto a platform with stairs going up. Mono sighed in relief.

“ _I feel like we’re gonna do that a lot more_ ,” Six signed apologetically.

“All the more reason to enjoy the not-vent moments.” He stretched his arms over his head and shot a shaky smile at his friend. She returned it.

The stairs up were an easy climb, just a bit bigger than what would be an accommodation for them. The enormous chains rattling overhead were a little intimidating, but nothing compared to the ominous presence of the Signal Tower they’d experienced a few months ago.

Beyond the small flight of stairs was another level, one with a little nook with a pristine porcelain doll tucked into neatly. The two looked at it curiously.

“That’s weird,” Mono mumbled. Six handed him the lighter and picked it up in her tiny arms. Mono’s head tilted quizzically. “Whatchya doin?”

She threw it, reducing it to countless shattered pieces of the rich material, and Mono cringed.

“ _What?_ ”

“I don’t think you should do that.”

“ _Why? It’s fun._ ” She grinned.

“Yeah but…” His face scrunched as he handed the lighter back to Six and they started their walk again. “You remember those static things in the Pale City that I could… like… absorb?”

The two ducked under a boarded entrance to a small room. “ _Yeah?_ ”

“I’m kinda getting the same feeling from those things. I don’t think we should touch them.”

“ _I didn’t_ absorb _it though._ ”

Mono huffed as he clambered after Six over the box next to the room’s bed. “But some weird stuff came out of it. Can we please not touch them?”

“ _Alright. If it’ll make you happy._ ” His face softened at her words, and they tumbled into the next room over.

His relaxed expression was immediately wiped off upon taking in their surroundings. He pressed his back to the wall and snatched Six’s hand into a death grip.

“Oh my god.” 

A few steps away from them was a chair, and, above it, was a hanged man swinging from the room’s ceiling. Mono was shaking, while Six averted her gaze. She stuffed the lighter into her pocket again and shielded her eyes from the sight as she crossed the room with Mono in hand. He did the same as her, though was much more outwardly distraught than her. Six was still disturbed at the sight, but certainly not as much as Mono, who continued to tremble even as she hoisted him up to open the door handle.

The next room had a mechanical pulsing sound just behind the walls, as well as an inky black puddle that stewed unsettlingly in the middle of the floor. Six went to close the door behind them as Mono stood unmoving an arm’s length away from her. Even if she wasn’t as shocked, she knew Mono was deeply empathetic and wasn’t one for handling explicit human deaths if they were innocent people.

“Do you need a second?”

“I think so,” he rasped. They sat down on the floor together, huddled up side by side, with Six rubbing the back of his coat and Mono leaning against her. He shuddered and sank closer and closer into her, from simply holding her hand to putting his head on her chest and wrapping his arms around her.

“Don’t let me stay here too long,” he murmured.

She silently agreed, and held him for about a minute or so until he started to shift and stand again. Without a word, they avoided the dark puddle and pried open the fridge. Mono yelped when something skittered away from behind the humming box, but pulled himself back up as he watched it go.

“Wait,” he called. “Hold on!” Before Six could even process it, he was running after it as it scampered off. She went after him, which was a bit funny — the little crack in the wall he slipped into led into a vent, one he clambered through loudly, until he came out the other side.

In a tiny room, only decorated with pipes and rough walls, was another lamp and a… something. A something with a tall triangular head and a miniature body. Mono seemed to love it: he smiled at it and absentmindedly reached a hand behind him to wordlessly ask for the lighter. She handed it to him and he eagerly lit the lantern. The thing warmed its human-like hands with the dim heat. Mono crouched next to it and looked up at Six with a wide grin, completely contrasting his mood less than thirty seconds ago.

“ _What is it?_ ”

“A Nome! I met one of these guys when I went up in the attic of the Hunter’s house, when we first met.”

“ _Ah. So that’s what you were doing._ ” He chuckled warmly.

“They’re nice, as far as I know.” Six approached the so-called Nome, and upon its neutral/nonexistent reaction towards her, she hugged it. It made an odd squeaky noise, but didn’t struggle or run away.

“Aww that’s so nice of you, Six.” She rolled her eyes.

“ _Let’s keep going,_ ” she signed with strict hand movements. Mono nodded, and waved goodbye to the little Nome, who sat quietly by the lantern.

After making their way back to the main room, climbing up the fridge’s shelves, and ungracefully scrambling up an incline, the two were met with the unsettling sights of something curled and black hanging above their heads. They cautiously weaved around the spots directly below the oozing curl, and quietly agreed to avoid them.

“What do you think they are?” Six asked aloud as they pried boards off a doorway.

“I dunno if it matters,” he said nonchalantly. “I think a good rule to keep in mind is to just assume everything around you sucks.”

“Unless you’re chopping down doors for girls with their music boxes.”

“You looked like you were trapped!” She bobbed her head in a neutral expression. He pouted at her. “Aren’t you glad I did that though?”

She was about to reply when the familiar shape of a Nome skittered past them. Mono went after it optimistically, but his somewhat lighthearted chase was cut short when a board under him collapsed. He shrieked, and Six sprinted to where he fell.

When she looked down, she could barely make out the sight of him standing up and dripping with the same thick blackness they’d seen earlier. Along with him floundering about, there was an unsettling and hostile chirping echoing around him. She heard the click of the lighter, along with a warm flash, and she saw countless slimy leeches crawling towards him maliciously.

“Six!” He screamed for her, and she dropped in next to him without a second thought. Together, they dodged and jumped over the parasites that suctioned closer and closer to them. Every so often their feet would get too close to one, and the sound of one snapping at their heels would make their hearts stop. They all slunk towards the children, hungry and gaping, until they pushed down the door and tumbled into the next area.

The leeches didn’t seem interested in following outside of their sludgy room, so the two collapsed on their backs and caught their breaths, allowing the adrenaline to take its course until their nerves settled again.

“ _To answer from earlier,_ ” Six signed unsteadily as she panted, “ _Yes. I’m glad._ ”

Mono laughed breathlessly.

They were back on their feet within moments, searching around the new area for anything helpful or the path to the next part of their journey. The room was oddly structured, with multiple levels and complete darkness the higher up they went.

The highest floor had an eerie sound of whistling wind, though was completely void of even the smallest breeze. Their goal was in sight — a crank on the opposite side of the room — but it was too dark to see where the floor was and wasn’t. The wooden planks weren’t wide enough for them to safely walk side by side, so Six just stayed at Mono’s heels as he led them through the dark with the flickering flame of the lighter. 

He held it close as Six turned the handle, revealing its function to lift open the door on the other side. The light pouring through was blinding, but certainly better than pitch blackness. When she let go of it, the door began to slide back shut.

Mono came over and turned the handle himself, then held it at its most turned position. “Once you get over there, I’ll run after you.”

Trust in each other’s plans was more instinctive rather than something they thought about. She didn’t ask any questions, just nodded and raced towards the doorway. After she’d made it safely across, Mono darted from the crank and sprinted to her. He just barely made it with a slide under the lowering door and a pull from Six. He sighed with relief and went limp on the floor while Six stood over him with a frown.

“ _Sometimes I feel like you cut things close just to scare me._ ”

“It keeps us on our toes,” he countered. She huffed, but offered her hand. He gladly took it, and they carried on.

They were taken into a large chamber, similar to the one with the enormous chains. Ahead of them was a cloth-tied rope into a barred window. To their left was an endless pit with a kind of bridge above it.

On that bridge, something dragged a cage across it, making a terrible scraping noise that echoed in the cavernous space. It didn’t last long — the sound faded away, even if the dread settling in the two children did not.

“Was that in your nightmare?” Six shook her head.

“ _I didn’t really see anyone in it. I just felt and heard things._ ”

“I hope they aren’t a part of it.” Her head slowly nodded.

The two climbed up the rope, constantly looking back to see if the cage-dragged would return, but luckily got inside without any issue. They found themselves in a bathroom closed off by electric barring. On the other side of it looked to be a daycare or indoor playground: toys littered the ground, there were swing sets and seesaws and even a model train track winding around the room. And on the very end of it, far away from where they were, was another electric set of bars.

Six saw the look on Mono’s face and read it perfectly: _are there other kids here?_ She knew she’d want to help them — it was in his nature. She wasn’t entirely sure if they’d be able to help… any child growing up as spoiled as this wouldn’t be inclined to leave anytime soon.

Mono lifted himself up to a hole in the wall, and Six went after him. They ended up on the other side, in the playroom, atop a drawer backed against the wall.

As she glanced around, she felt a pang of sadness upon registering the presence of a music box on the drawer with them. She quietly padded to it and wound it up. Mono sat next to her as the melody played softly.

It wasn’t the same song as her own music box. While hers was somewhat ominous, this one was like a sad lullaby. Despite expecting the disappointment, it still stung. Mono sympathetically leaned against her and kissed her cheek. Even as the box sung its song, Mono hummed hers in her ear, and the sadness ebbed.

“Let’s look around,” he whispered as it ended. She sighed heavily and left the box on top of the drawer.

She decidedly distracted herself from the low feeling by taking to the seesaw next to the drawer. As Mono ventured further into the room, Six tested the ride with a tap of her foot, to which it made a horrible creak that had Mono turning around.

“ _Go stand on the other side_ ,” she signed with a snicker. He glowered.

“I still hate you for that.”

She laughed and ran to catch up with him, sliding her hand into his. They thoroughly investigated the room, but found it to be empty of anything useful. They retreated back up into the bathroom, then Mono huffed, striding away from her.

“I feel like an idiot,” he mumbled. She tilted her head in question, to which he showed her a lever behind the tilting bathroom door. She chuckled humorlessly. He shoved the switch down and everything went dark. Seconds later, a flickering flame dimly illuminated Mono’s round face as he rushed through the powerless bars and led Six across the now-black room.

The darkness ticked with a fast pace that made the pair more nervous than the situation should be. Along with each measure of ticks, their speed increased and they squeezed their held hands tighter. Within moments, they were wiggling through the second wall of bars, which lit up and hummed again mere heartbeats after crossing. They both breathed a sigh neither knew they were holding.

This new area was lined with identical doors, rows and rows of them, stretching taller than the two of them. Mono had an odd look in his eye, like remembering something he’d rather forget. Six tugged on his sleeve worriedly.

“Yeah,” he said distantly. “Yeah, sorry, just… never mind.” She frowned, but didn’t push. The two walked into a more open part of the area, which was dark and scattered with cages — stacked, hung, organized in every way. The two took cautious steps, wary of any changes in their surroundings.

There was a loud, metallic creak, a bright flash of light, and suddenly, Six was feeling an unbelievably agonizing pain on her hand. She shrieked at the unexpected scraping sensation on her skin before being pulled backwards by Mono, back into the shadows casted by a pillar and cages. She fell back against him, looking at the back of her hand. It had turned dry and crusted. She hesitantly lifted her other hand to brush it off. Even when she wiped it away gingerly, it stung bad, but her skin underneath was virtually unharmed. Mono seemed to notice, as he sighed in relief.

She looked up from herself and watched as a light glanced around the room in measured movements. While the brightness scanned about, they slowly peaked around the pillar and saw the eye cast the malicious beam.

“ _We seem to be alright as long as we’re not in the light,_ ” Six noted, not daring to use her voice. Mono nodded.

“ _Let’s try it,_ ” he suggested.

Hand in hand, the two sprinted from shadow to shadow, taking notice of the time between movements. They ran behind the stack of cages and found themselves safe from the light.

Climbing up the bars was done quickly and quietly, though hauling Mono up took more time than necessary since he seemed shaken by all the doors lining the second floor. He was quick to move on from them and go into the pitch black room awaiting them to their right.

It was quiet and filled with beds that had little children safely cozied. But something about the room felt dangerous. The pair simultaneously crouched and hid under one of the beds upon entering. They were lucky they did.

The door behind them swung shut and a new one opened, letting in something new and awful. Legs that stumbled and dragged across the floor, a face that was pulled over itself, an odd, grinding jaw, and horrifically long arms that were held above the ground, looming oppressively. The two children under the bed said absolutely nothing, not even daring to breathe as it entered. Its lower jaw reeled in and out of place and it rolled its neck to make wooden-like creaking noises. Unnaturally shaped hands prodded around blindly, though never ventured underneath the bed frames. It crossed the room quietly, leaving the way they’d come, and shut the door with hardly a sound.

To their right was a small but well lit room. They silently climbed up the grate of the cages stacked inside before crawling into a vent, where they finally dared to make a noise.

“I’d love to go on _one_ adventure where I don’t get hunted by some freaky looking people,” Mono muttered behind Six. She clambered out of the tight space with a quiet laugh, pulling him through before continuing. But, again, an unexpected pain struck her. She held her stomach and groaned as it growled with abrupt hunger. She barely caught a glimpse of Mono’s face, scared and frowned, before she kneeled over. The clawing grumble of her stomach paused for a moment, leaving her panting in discomfort as she struggled to get back up, but it resumed within seconds and immobilized her again. She vaguely registered Mono’s hand on her back.

“Six? Are you hungry?” She cried out, curled into a ball while the pangs continued. Mono’s presence left her side and she heard the pattering of his feet become distant, then stop suddenly. After a moment of silence, she noticed the almost-unheard sound of metal creaking. Then, Mono’s voice.

“Hey!” His call was friendly and somewhat desperate. “My friend is really hungry. Can you help us?” Another horrible stab ached in Six, and she didn’t have the energy to listen to much more.

Within moments, there was something pushed against her hand. She opened her pain-screwed eyes and saw a piece of bread being offered. The smell and warmth and mere idea of eating made her mouth water. She’d never felt so hungry. Not even second passed before she was wolfing it down in needy, gulping bites. She barely had the chance to taste it, then it was gone. The starvation subsided. She stood again as if nothing happened.

Mono’s expression was worried and relieved at the same time. “Do you feel better?”

She nodded slowly. He sighed and visibly relaxed. His smile was gentle and caring as he took her hand in his and led them forward. They said a brief thanks to the boy in the cafeteria, who simply shrugged at their gratitude, then stepped into the next room.

  
  
  


There was a long and anxiety-inducing process of figuring out how to continue after seeing another set of electrified bars. It involved a lot of climbing, trying not to fall to imminent and painful death, Mono dreading said death as he watches Six jump to a heavy clutter of cages from the lever he’d pulled, and a brief happy moment from Mono when Six told him that she got to hug a Nome again. The entire thing took about five to ten minutes (it wasn’t very easy to tell) but the room when dark as she shut the power off, descended from a noose, and joined Mono on the first floor again.

She saw Mono physically suppress a frustrated groan when they came across yet _another_ Eye. He aggressively took her hand and stomped to the edges of the room, somewhat towards the light but sticking to the walls. Six blinked in surprise when she realized he was leading them under the beam, too close to the Eye for the projected brightness to reach.

Within seconds, they were out of the room without a scratch on them.

“ _Smart_ ,” Six complimented.

“I hate those things so much,” he chuckled humorlessly.

A door lied ahead of them, across a metal bridge littered with sizable boxes. The pass looked sturdy enough, holding up when Mono tested it with his own weight, and the two began to cross.

A loud boom echoed around them, then everything shook violently. The bridge, at its middle, began to retract into the sides it connected. Some boxes fell at the merciless shaking, into a seemingly endless pit that looked eager for whatever gravity would give it. The kids rushed to the opposite side, scrambling up one of the bigger boxes as their floor shrank in length, shorter and shorter by the second.

Six was the first up to safety, then quickly turning to help Mono. He yelped when he felt the box start to fall under him, to which Six snatched him up by his coat and hauled him to the other side. The box fell down, down, down… and they didn’t hear a crash.

Mono caught his breath in ragged pants, still clinging to Six as she did to him.

“God,” he gasped, “I hate this.” Six laughed somewhat hollowly. After a few moments for recomposure, they pressed onwards.

They reached a huge, empty space, only filled with the skittering of Nomes as they ran around. At the end was an opened doorway, lit and welcoming, that encouraged them to continue.

They walked at a steady pace, hand in hand, as they approached. Mono took a deep breath.

“Do you think we’re almost out of here?” Six frowned.

“I think… we’re farther than we’d like to be.” She rubbed the pad of her thumb across his knuckles comfortingly. In response, he grinned, but the empty kind.

“Yeah. I think so too.” He turned to her, with a certain kind of cautious hope in his eyes. “But I have you. So at least it won’t be… _as_ bad as it could be. I’m glad you’re with me.” His smile was no longer empty.

And as she returned it, nor was hers. “I’m glad too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! comments and kudos are appreciated <33
> 
> youtube/twitter: @burntpaws

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated <33
> 
> youtube/twitter: @burntpaws


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